Got this message from Don Williams:

Allowing elements of the population boom Gap to emigrate into the declining graying Core invites instability. Already the U.S. is having difficulty assimilating our own marginalized citizens, let alone the flood of immigrants. Doesn't this invite our own sort of Balkanization and "Reconquista" of the American Southwest amongst others. How do we as a country integrate cultural, language, and religious zeal of newcomers without the destabilizing effects that are already being felt elsewhere in the world?

Tom's reply:

America, according to "natives" throughout its history, has ALWAYS been failing to integrate its latest version of newcomers, and yet somehow we always do. There is nothing new about the current package. Reminds me a lot of the vast Irish influx of early 19th century. They were considered non-white, filthy, spoke another language (as far as could be told), and were nutty Papists with madrassas called parochial schools.

And yet my Irish are as American as apple pie today.